


Darkness Closing In

by dreaming_back_to_this



Series: In Darkness [2]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ, Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Psychic Abilities, Sam Winchester's Demonic Powers, Season 2 fix-it fic, Temporary Character Death, slowly going AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-24 15:12:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6157750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreaming_back_to_this/pseuds/dreaming_back_to_this
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Dean have found strong allies in Jae and Max. When Sam suddenly goes missing, those allies will be more important than ever. Demonic possession and psychic boot camp culminates in a showdown at a ghost town that one of them may not make it out of.</p>
<p><b>Teaser:</b> The sentence is barely out of Sam's mouth when Dean shares a look with Max.  Between one blink and the next, the chair flips from facing Bobby's desk to facing Sam, and Sam is flying across the room to slam into it.  His eyes immediately flash demon-black as he shoots a barbed-wire glare in Max's direction.  Max simply shrugs, not at all repentant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Darkness Closing In

Part 1

  


Sam feels it the moment Meg finds everything he knows about Max, the initial curiosity followed by sadistic glee as she digs deeper and learns more. She's positively jubilant when she discovers the thread of their mental connection. He attempts to push her away as she begins sending a message down the line, but she overpowers him almost easily. He's not nearly practiced enough in mental battles, something he plans on enlisting Max's help to rectify when - if - he gets out of this. _Max? I... I need your help. Can you meet me?_ Sam can do nothing but listen from the sidelines as Meg makes the connection with Max.

There's a long pause, much longer than normal. They've practiced this a lot over the last couple months, and it's usually an almost instantaneous response no matter how far apart they are. When Max's reply finally comes back, it's slow and suspicious, and Sam would have breathed a sigh of relief if he had control of his body at the moment. _Who is this?_

_What do you mean?_ Meg returns. _It's Sam, of course. You have psychic connections with that many people you can't tell them apart anymore?_

Another pause. _No, it's not,_ Max states, calm and even, a fraction of a moment before a tsunami force slams into Meg's presence. Sam feels his body physically react, falling back onto the bed in whatever seedy motel Meg had checked him into. Apparently even Meg had not been prepared for such an assault. The power withdraws as quickly as it had come, Sam's connection to Max slamming closed behind it.

  


~*~~*~

  


Jae warily eyes the coffees perched precariously on top of the styrofoam containers holding their breakfast as he balances the stack in one hand and digs out his motel key card with the other. Turning the handle and nudging the door open with his foot, he uses his now-free hand to steady the cups while pushing the door open the rest of the way with his hip. He gets inside just in time to see Max snatch his phone off the bedside table and start dialing almost frantically. "Min? What's-" He cuts off when Max holds a finger up in the air as a signal for him to hold off on the questions.

"Dean?" Max greets, somehow hesitant and urgent at the same time. "Yeah, no, I know this probably isn't the best time. Sam's not with you, is he?" And it's not a question, really, as if Max already knows the answer and is simply getting confirmation. "I didn't have time to get a whole lot of information, but I'm pretty sure he's in Wisconsin. Twin Lakes. We can meet you there, but I won't be able to get too close. I kind of gave away the fact that I know it's not Sam, so it'll be too suspicious if I..." He pauses, obviously listening to Dean on the other end. "Dean. Sam's... Sam's possessed. It's a demon."

Jae drops their food on the table and starts packing.

  


~*~~*~

  


"How much info did you get, exactly?" Jae asks once they're packed up and on the road. The food he'd picked up - breakfast burritos and pastries - is easy enough to eat on the go.

Max shakes his head, swallowing the bite in his mouth and washing it down with a quick drink of his coffee before answering. "Not a lot and only that because I think I caught it off guard, attacking the way I did. Enough to figure out it was a demon and get a location. A vague impression of a plan. It was strong, though, so I didn't want to hang out too long to get details and risk it turning the connection around on me."

"Yeah. Yeah, of course," Jae agrees. The demon had obviously used Max and Sam's connection to contact him for a reason, so of course Jae wouldn't want Max to put himself at any unnecessary risk. Still, he wishes they had more to go on. "Was... was Sam okay at least? Could you tell?"

Max smirks at him but abides by Jae's "don't say it" glare. "He seemed okay. Confused, obviously. Freaked out but not hurt. From what Dean said, he's barely been missing 24 hours, so I don't think the demon's done much. It's... I don't know, pacing itself. Drawing this out. It felt personal somehow, like this wasn't some random, run-of-the-mill possession. I think this demon knows exactly who it's possessing and what it wants to do with him."

Jae sighs. "That is... just so much worse. Dammit."

"Maybe," Max concedes, "but at least it means this thing isn't out there just wreaking havoc and burning Sam's body out as fast as possible. It's got a plan, which means we've got time."

  


~*~~*~

  


They meet Dean the next day at a roadside motel in Genoa City, just over the border from Illinois. He looks strung out, stretched thin, and Max imagines he hasn't been sleeping much if at all. Maybe eating just enough to keep him from collapsing. He files away the observations as soon as he makes them, vowing to make sure Dean eats at least twice a day as long as they're working together again. He can't blame the older man for the lapse - Max knows what he'd do if Jae had disappeared then turned up possessed by a demon - but that doesn't mean he can't do his part to keep Dean as healthy as possible.

"You said the demon had a plan?" Dean asks in lieu of a greeting, not even rising from his seat on the closer bed, his voice deeper and rougher than usual. 

Max nods, sitting down on the edge of the second bed across from Dean as Jae drops their bags just behind him. "Yeah. No real details, I couldn't tell you exactly where it'll be or anything, but I know it wants you to think Sam's gone dark. It found out something... I don't know. I couldn't hear it clearly, but it seemed like it was thinking about something your father told you at some point."

"Yeah, that's what I was afraid of," Dean sighs, digging the base of his hands into his eyes.

"You... wanna fill us in?" Jae asks, almost cautiously. While the two of them have maintained a sort of steady rivalry over the last few months, he knows that now's not the time to push it. Dean's on the edge as-is, and Jae can easily picture them at each other's throats if he falls into the same pattern of antagonism, friendly or not.

Dean scoffs at the question. "Not really," he replies, releasing a resigned sigh before continuing, "but that doesn't mean I'm not going to. You'll probably find out sooner or later anyway."

Max sits quietly, studying Dean's face intently but patiently; he's always been better at waiting people out, letting them do things on their own time. Jae digs around in their duffle bags behind him, not really looking for anything so much as looking for something to do. To keep himself occupied so he doesn't push and prod for answers until someone draws a weapon. Been there, done that, learned the lesson. Let Max handle these things.

"Sam's filled you in about how our dad died?" Dean asks, finally lowering his hands to meet Max's eyes. Max nods but stays quiet, not wanting to interrupt. "He'd figured some things out before he died, about the demon and the other kids like Sam. Stuff that we're just figuring out now since he didn't feel the need to pass the info along. He did tell me, though, to watch out for Sam. To save him. And that if I couldn't..."

He leaves the statement hanging, but they can all fill in the blanks well enough on their own. "So that's this demon's plan?" Max replies. "Make you think Sam's gone dark so you'll be forced to kill him? So... this is personal somehow, not just the typical demon thing."

Brow furrowing, Dean focuses on Max more intently. "How do you figure?"

Jae wonders the same thing as he stops his pointless repacking of their bags to take a seat next to Max. The youngest hunter shifts uncomfortably under two intense stares and gives a little half shrug. "It's just... what makes sense. If you take a step back and look at the bigger picture..."

"Spell it out for us, Min," Jae prompts. The kid has a bad habit of forgetting that not everyone looks at things the way he does or can make the same connections.

"This yellow-eyed demon, whoever he is," Min starts, eyes fixed on his fingers picking at a stain on his knee, "he's obviously powerful, probably pretty high up in the hierarchy. Exceedingly patient, since he's likely been putting together the plan with these special children for decades, possibly longer. I'm assuming, considering all that, that all the lower demons know who these children are, have possibly been instructed to watch them, but I can't imagine they'd have the clearance to actually do anything to the kids that would risk screwing up this master plan."

Sighing, Dean follows the logic of everything Max has said. Listening to Sam's situation being analyzed so clinically, though, wrenches something inside him. He knows Max enough at this point to know the kid isn't nearly as detached as he sounds - is, in fact, likely quite the opposite - but that doesn't make it any easier to listen to. "Okay, makes sense so far." Without thinking, he reaches over to swat Max's hands away from his jeans.

Max looks up and flashes him a small smile then obediently folds his hands together and rests them on his legs. "Alright, so, Sam, as one of these kids, should obviously be off limits. And yet, whoever this demon possessing him is doesn't seem to mind risking the yellow-eyed demon's anger to pull off this plan. To me, that just screams of a pretty serious personal grudge."

Closing his eyes, Dean runs his hands through his hair with a low, frustrated growl. The list of demons that might have a personal beef with the Winchesters isn't short by any means. The longer he thinks about it, though, the more one name starts to stand out above the rest. "Meg," he grinds out between clenched teeth.

"That's... not a very demonic name," Jae observes, giving a little shrug when both Max and Dean stare at him incredulously. Min finally turns away with a shake of his head and a roll of his eyes.

"It was the name of the first girl she possessed to get close to Sam," Dean explains slowly, and as much as Jae resents the small-child treatment, he thinks maybe he sort of earned it this once. "She, obviously, never handed over her true name even after we figured out she was actually a demon."

Both Max and Jae consider the words, though each for likely very different reasons. "Sounds like there's more of a story there. You think this is definitely the demon that has Sam?"

Dean nods once, sharp and efficient. "Pretty sure, yeah. It makes the most sense. Like I said, she tried to get close to Sam at first, 'coincidentally' showed up where we were a couple times. Then we interrupted a few of her grand master plans, threw her out a window, and eventually sent her skank ass back to hell. So, yeah, she's probably pretty pissed at us."

"Well, then," Jae replies, "guess we better work on coming up with some kind of plan. I know you said she's pacing this out, Min, but we probably shouldn't give her any more time with Sam than absolutely necessary."

  


~*~~*~

  


When Meg opens the door to Sam's motel room to see Dean standing there, Sam's eyes flash with irritated anger for a split-second before settling into the surprise and curiosity Dean would have expected if he hadn't known that this wasn't Sam. It's quick enough that Dean probably would have missed the initial reaction if he hadn't been expecting it. "Dean? What... How did you know I was here?"

"Tracked the GPS on your phone, dumbass," Dean retorts, pretending as much as possible that this really is his little brother standing in front of him as he pushes his way into the room. It's small, even smaller than they're used to, with just one double bed set against the far wall under a grimy window. "Seriously, Sammy, if you want to run away from home, you shouldn't make it so easy to find you."

Sam's face falls, and Dean almost applauds the demon bitch's act. It's good; if Dean hadn't gotten the heads-up from Max, wasn't looking for the signs, he'd probably never have guessed Sam was possessed until it was too late. As it is, the fact just serves to piss him off even more. "Dean, that wasn't... I didn't... Look, you're angry. I get it."

"Oh, I really don't think you do, Sam," Dean retorts, cutting off whatever bullshit excuse Meg was about to feed him for his brother's disappearing act. After a quick glance around the room, he stalks over to the bed to grab Sam's duffle. It doesn't look like the demon actually unpacked anything, and if she did, Dean will replace whatever once they send her back to Hell. "I don't think you 'get' much of anything right now. But we can discuss that on the road. We're leaving."

"What? No, Dean, you can't just..."

"Oh, trust me, Sam. I can." Dean's banking on the demon trying to maintain the act and follow his lead, and he's hoping Sam is aware enough to take the cue and play along. They have other plans in place if the demon tries to fight him on leaving, but none of them really want to put those plans to use. It'll be so much easier if Meg just cooperates. "Let's go, Sasquatch. To the car."

He gets a classic Sammy Bitch Face in response and flashes a broad grin back, covering the sudden pain of missing his brother. It's only been about two days but knowing that the familiar expression on the familiar face is being controlled by a demon in his brother's body makes the ache so much worse. "You're an ass," Not-Sam shoots at him as he passes Dean on his way out of the motel room and towards the car.

"Yeah, I've been told," Dean replies, his smile fading as soon as Sam's back is turned. He just has to get them to Bobby's, he reminds himself. They can fix this at Bobby's.

  


~*~~*~

  


Max and Jae approach the old scrap yard with some trepidation, knowing they'll be faced with the task of filling the grumpy old hunter in on all of the details as well as the rough plan they've put together. Even so, they find themselves relaxing at the familiarity of the house when they pull up in front of it. Jae puts the car in park, and they both sit and stare up at the house for a minute, bracing themselves for the conversation they're facing. "We should... probably head in," Jae finally says.

Max nods his agreement, but it's another moment before he opens his door and steps out of the car. As if he'd been waiting for the movement, Bobby steps out of his front door onto the porch. "Any time you boys feel like coming inside, we got plenty of work to do," he snipes, only half-serious, as Jae emerges from his side of the car. With a quick nod, both boys grab their bags from the back seat and follow Bobby into the house. When they pass over the devil's trap scrawled on the underside of the welcome mat in front of his door without incident, he relaxes a bit. He hadn't actually suspected anything, but it's always nice to have the confirmation.

"It's nice to see you again Bobby," Jae says when they're all inside. "Wish the situation were better, but, well, it is what it is I guess."

Nodding his acknowledgment of the statement, Bobby turns to look at Max. He's used to the quiet from the kid, but something in his expression tells Bobby that Max is distracted or zoned out for whatever reason. There's always been a sense of something different around Max, but his current state makes him seem somehow almost otherworldly. "You okay there, kid?" he asks.

Max finally makes eye contact with him and offers a small smile and nod. "I'm fine, Bobby. Just trying to keep track of Sam without him or the demon realizing they've got a tagalong. It's a bit... hectic."

Bobby's brow furrows as he considers the statement. While it's nice to know they've got tabs on Sam if the demon decides to cut and run with him, at the same time, he's not sure he likes the idea of Max being in Sam's head without Sam really aware of it. He decides not to pursue the issue, though, weighing the pros slightly heavier than the cons at this point.

They work together to draw the intricate signs of the devil's trap they'll need to hold Sam while they do the exorcism. This demon has come back far too often for Bobby's liking, and he double- and triple-checks to be sure not a single line is out of place. Jae is a steady help, though Max takes frequent "zone-out" breaks - as Bobby has dubbed them - to track Sam and Dean's progress. Finally, just as they're certain everything is set up as perfectly as they can make it, Max announces, "They're close, maybe half an hour."

"I'm gonna move the car into the garage. No use tipping this thing off before we even get Sam in the door," Jae says as Bobby sits down behind his desk, attempting to relax. It'd do them no good to get Sam inside if he just turned right around again because Bobby was acting off.

Bobby looks at Max just as he tunes back in to the real world from another check on Sam and Dean. The kid is smart, intuitive, and - if the hunters Bobby's checked with that have encountered the Asian duo on cases are any indication - a damn good hunter even without the extra help his powers give them. Actively working with the guy, though, still throws Bobby for a loop sometimes, willingly working with someone that has a supernatural boost of unknown origins. If he wasn't on his way to trusting Max over the last few months, though, his giving them a heads-up on Sam's situation and location have definitely put him on the fast track.

Closing his eyes, Max clutches the arms of the chair he's sitting in and sways a bit before clenching his jaw and steadying himself. Bobby raises an eyebrow but waits until Max opens his eyes again to see the expression before asking, "You okay over there, kid?"

Max gives him a quick one-shouldered shrug in response. "Might have to sleep for a day after we're all finished here, gonna crash so hard. Jae's gonna kick my ass for it, I'm sure." He offers a wry smile along with the prediction.

"He's gonna kick your ass 'cause you're tired?" Bobby questions, the idea not quite gelling with all the mother-henning he knows Jae does over Max.

"No, I'm gonna kick his ass because he's overusing his powers and exhausting himself, and he knows it," Jae chimes in as he re-enters the house and joins them in the library/office. "I swear, if we end up in the hospital again, Shim Changmin..." He trails off into a trail of Korean that Bobby doesn't need to understand to know it's threatening.

The tips of Max's ears flush pink as he ducks his head, and Bobby can honestly say it's the first time he's ever seen the kid embarrassed. "Put yourself in a coma one time..." Max mutters, scuffing his toes over the floor.

Bobby almost laughs at the picture of a repentant young kid Max makes until the words actually hit him. "A coma? That actually a risk for you?"

"Yes," Jae responds as Max shakes his head.

" _No,_ " Max insists over Jae's stern look. "Not this time. I was younger then, had less control, and was attempting to do a lot more. I'll crash hard, like I said, but we're nowhere near coma territory here."

Bobby studies him for a long moment, trying to gauge the truth of the statement, but ultimately decides to simply take Max's word for it. Kid's hard enough to read as it is; Bobby has no illusions about being able to see something he's actively trying to hide. Jae continues grumbling about it, though, and Bobby has to stifle a chuckle when Jae's chair miraculously scoots away from him just as he attempts to sit. "I hate you so much," Jae throws in Max's direction from his sprawl on the floor, but Max is already out to check on Sam and Dean again.

  


~*~~*~

  


Jae and Max have both moved to the couch by the time they hear the Impala pull up. Bobby stays behind his desk, flipping back and forth between a few books. They'd decided to go with the excuse of the boys needing Bobby's research help to cover for their presence just in case Meg decides to get suspicious. "Bobby?" Dean calls out as they enter the house.

"In here," Bobby calls back. The front door closes, and Max's eyes flick for the briefest moment in that direction. If he weren't in on the plan, Bobby's not sure he'd know that Max is laying out a salt line from the small bag they'd left near the door just for this purpose. No use letting the demon bitch get out now they've got her here even if she does start questioning things.

Dean walks into the room and makes himself comfortable, though Meg-Sam props himself against the doorjamb. It's a familiar position for him, but Bobby can't help wondering if any of the posturing is because she knows somehow that there's a devil's trap under the rug in the center of the floor. "Hey, guys," Sam-but-not says when he notices Max and Jae. "Didn't know you two would be here."

Jae gestures towards Bobby and the desk. "Needed some of Bobby's expertise on a couple leads. Got here just a little while ago."

"You gonna stand the whole time, Sammy? Get in here and take a seat," Dean says with a wave at the only free chair left in the room, placed carefully so it's inside the devil's trap but not so that it feels like an obviously strange placement for a chair.

Sam's eyes shift around the room for a moment, just long enough that Bobby's pretty sure the demon knows what's waiting for it under that chair. "Nah, dude. Just got out of the car. Need to stretch my legs a bit."

The sentence is barely out of Sam's mouth when Dean shares a look with Max. Between one blink and the next, the chair flips from facing Bobby's desk to facing Sam, and Sam is flying across the room to slam into it. His eyes immediately flash demon-black as he shoots a barbed-wire glare in Max's direction. Max simply shrugs, not at all repentant.

The demon then turns to Dean with a wry smirk on Sam's lips. "Really, Dean," it drawls out, "you gonna sit by and let them treat baby brother's body like that?"

Ignoring the taunt, Dean pulls a flask from his pocket and unscrews the top. "I would ask your name, but, well, we already have a pretty good idea." He tosses some of the contents of his flask over Sam, smiling grimly as the demon screams and smoke rises from Sam's skin. Standing just outside the lines of the devil's trap, Dean stares into the black eyes in his brother's face. "We also know how you wanted this to go down. Not sure how it plays into the big master plan, but-"

He's cut off by a derisive snort. "This has nothing to do with the master plan," Meg sneers. "Just good old-fashioned revenge."

With a roll of his eyes, Dean takes a step back and nods at Bobby to start the exorcism. The Latin falls easily from the older man's mouth, and Dean gives the demon a smirk of his own as it starts to writhe and twist in the chair. Then, as if Bobby's not speaking at all, Sam's body goes still, and Meg looks up with a grin. "Not gonna be nearly so easy this time, kids. Feel free to keep trying, though. Kinda tickles."

With that announcement, the demon breaks into some Latin of its own. It hasn't said more than a couple words, though, when Sam's voice breaks with a breathy cough. After the coughing is under control, the demon tries again. Sam's mouth is moving, but no sound comes out. Dean and Bobby share a confused look before turning to Max and Jae. Max gives them a shrug, almost identical to the one he'd given Meg. "You didn't want it to finish that incantation, I promise you. I just paralyzed his vocal cords; I can reverse it no problem once the demon's gone."

"Leaves us the problem, though, that the exorcism clearly isn't working," Bobby grouses, already thinking about which of his books might have information on demons immune to regular exorcisms.

Max's brow furrows as he stares at Sam, knowing Bobby's got a point. "We need to know what the demon did to hold it in there, then," he states. "If I can get in and-"

"No way," Jae interrupts him. "You're barely running on fumes as it is, Min, especially now that you apparently need to keep this thing from speaking, too. You can't just..." He trails off with a sigh, though, when he realizes that Max has his eyes closed and is already long gone. Growling, he kicks at Max's unresponsive foot. "Dammit. I am so gonna kill him."

They wait in tense silence, glancing between Max and Sam, for a long minute with no reaction from either of them. A minute after that, Max's eyes clench with the exertion, a small line of blood slowly dripping from his nose, and Dean silently seconds Jae's threat. Meg smirks at the toll his effort is taking on Max but can't do much more around the strain of actually keeping the kid out. He's good, strong; the demon will give him that much.

Another long minute passes, and then Max's eyes fly open as he sucks in a deep breath. "Right forearm," he gasps out, wiping the blood from his face. "Some kind of sigil or something. Break the symbol and the demon's gone."

Bobby wastes no time in stepping into the circle to push Sam's sleeve up, revealing the vivid scar on his arm, then looking back at Dean. "Guessing we'll either have to burn or cut through it. Your brother, you make the call."

If Meg had been angry before, the demon's downright enraged now. It fights and bucks against the ropes holding it to the chair, mouth open the whole time in a soundless scream. Dean considers the options for only a moment before pulling out his knife and tossing it to Bobby. "Cut it." 

Bobby draws the blade of the knife through the symbol once then a second time just for insurance, but Sam's head is thrown back before he's halfway through the second cut, black smoke streaming from his open mouth. It seems to last forever to Dean, but then suddenly the smoke is gone and Sam is slumping forward in the chair. Dean crouches down in front of it, tilting Sam's head up to check his pulse and breathing as Sam's eyes slowly open. "What... Dean?"

"Jesus, Sammy," Dean mutters, shaking his head with a rueful smile as he taps Sam's cheek. "You ever do that to me again, and I will kick your ass so hard."

Sam just offers him a confused smile, not entirely sure what he's not supposed to do again or why he's currently tied down or why he feels like he's been run over by a semi. Twice. Dean is at least already working to get him out of the ropes, but before he can address any of the questions he has, he hears a voice to his left and looks over just in time to see Max slumping back against the couch.

"Min?" Jae asks, leaning over to shake Max's shoulders lightly. There's no response, which Jae seemed to be half expecting anyway, as he simply issues a deep sigh and takes a quick count of Max's pulse. They're all watching him when he pulls away apparently satisfied and turns to face them. "Unconscious," he informs them, "as he probably will be for the next day or two now. Pulse is strong, though, so I think we can avoid the hospital this time."

"This time?" Dean asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Apparently Max has a habit of overtaxing himself while using his powers and putting himself into a coma," Bobby fills them in, finishing off the ropes keeping Sam in the chair. As soon as the last one is gone, Sam stands and stretches out; he's not sure how long he's been restrained, but everything feels tight and tense. "Guess you guys're gonna have to stay for a bit then," Bobby continues as he and Dean stand, too, "until Max is up on his feet again. You wanna try to move him up to one of the bedrooms, or..."

Jae shakes his head, already sliding off the couch and carefully lowering Max down to stretch across the length of it. "Nah, he'll be fine here," he replies, wiping the blood from Max's face with a rag Bobby dampened with nearby holy water.

"What's the possibility of this actually turning into a coma?" Bobby asks with a wary glance at the unconscious young man on his couch while pressing another towel to the cuts on Sam's arm. Sam glances down, only now noticing the blood trickling down and off his hand and the sting of shallow cuts. His brow furrows in confusion, but he figures he can get his answers once the Max situation is cleared up.

Jae simply shrugs, the whole routine old-hat to him by now. "It's always a possibility when he strains himself this much. The bloody nose definitely doesn't make me feel any better about it. I'll try to wake him up in a few hours to get some fluids in him. If we can't get him to wake up, we can cart him into the hospital then."

"And if he does wake up?" Dean asks, not quite sure how he feels about this whole coma situation being taken so lightly. At the same time, though, if anyone knows how to take care of Max, it's gonna be Jae.

Jae flashes him a small, thin, exhausted smile. "Fluids, like I said. Even if we can get him semi-conscious, he's still gonna be down for probably 2 or 3 days. Whenever this happens, I wake him up every few hours or so, get him to drink a protein shake or something to get him some vitamins and all that. Get him coherent enough to make a bathroom trip a couple times a day."

They all start settling back down into their chairs again. Or, rather, Bobby settles into his chair behind his desk while Sam snags the chair Dean had and leaving the chair Sam had been tied to for his older brother. Dean rolls his eyes but still drags the chair out of the circle of the devil's trap before sitting down. Jae, meanwhile, simply lifts Max's upper body for a moment to settle back down on the couch then lets Max's head rest in his lap. "You're really used to all of this with him, aren't you?" Sam asks as he catches the small first aid kit Bobby tosses from his desk.

Jae just shrugs again as the fingers of one hand tangle in Max's thick, curly hair. "It used to happen pretty often when he was younger, right after he escaped the Centre. His powers were still growing back then, and he didn't have the control that he does now. So he'd get freaked out by something and lash out with just everything he had in him. Completely drained himself every time. Scared the crap out of me the first couple times, let me tell you. Still worries me every time it happens, but I guess there's no more overwhelming panic or urgency to it anymore."

Sam finishes securing a bandage over the cuts and strange burn scar on his arm just as Jae finishes speaking. The conversation seems to be wrapping up, so he gestures to his newest injury. "So, now that we've got that covered... anyone wanna tell me what happened here?"


End file.
